August-2019

64 / WILDLIFE / Conservation
WILDLIFE / 65
Philip Lee Harvey
leaves and fruit. Females become sexually
mature from 11 to 13 years of age. And
despite the fact that elephant families
live apart from the males for so long,
they all know each other as individuals.
“Elephants communicate using infrasonic
vocalisations that can carry over
10 km and in this way distant herds can
stay in touch with each other. This
means they can coordinate their movements
away from trouble and
towards good feeding areas.”
Every year, the female groups and
mature males congregate in a gathering
that’s similar to a Maasai celebration
when warriors return to meet their families:
the elephants greet each other in
noisy celebration.
VITAL FOR OUR ENVIRONMENT
Dr Kahumbu explains that elephants
are some of the most important animals
in African ecology. “They move tremendous
amounts of nutrients around and
shed seeds, which germinate in their
pie-sized dung. This makes them ecosystem
engineers vital for the ecological
health of our savannahs and woodlands.”
Sadly, elephant populations have
dwindled over the decades as a result of
human activities that threatened their
existence. This problem is compounded
by elephants’ long gestation period.
“They have longer pregnancies than
almost any other mammal,” says Dr
Kahumbu. They carry their calves for
about 22 months, with cows usually bearing
only one calf every 3 to 6 years; and
their regeneration rate averages 5 to 6
percent annually, compared to the 8 to 9
percent poaching rates, resulting in a net
loss in population numbers. Elephants
are threatened with extinction as they’re
unable to sustain current population
numbers if the high rate of poaching
continues unabated.”
The African elephant population
reduced dramatically during a >
Hands off
In addition to the strategic Hands Off
Our Elephants partnership between
WildlifeDirect and the country’s First
Lady, Kenya is enjoying growing
corporate support for various elephant
conservation campaigns.
The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, established
more than 40 years ago, is best
known for its Orphans’ Project: a
pioneering elephant orphan rescue and
rehabilitation programme. Through this
project, the Trust raises orphaned, milkdependent
elephants and reintegrates
them back into the wild.
Through its elephant conservation
programme, the World Wide Fund for
Nature Kenya has helped to develop
the National Elephant Conservation and
Management Strategy 2012-2021 to
address the threats facing elephants.
Ultimately, the programme seeks to
ensure that, in 25 years, elephants and
people live and thrive side by side in the
Serengeti–Masaai Mara area.
“Kenya’s elephant numbers
plummeted from 168,000 to 18,000
between the 1960s and 1980s”
“ONE OF the greatest challenges
facing elephants is no longer poaching
for ivory, but the killing of elephants due
to human-elephant conflict,” says Dr
Paula Kahumbu, one of Africa’s pre-eminent
conservationists. “This is caused by
people encroaching onto elephant ranges,
and elephants moving out of parks and
into farms. To protect elephants, we must
focus on supporting the people who live
in the same landscapes with them.”
On 12 August, everyone on Earth
will have the opportunity to make a difference
thanks to the awareness drive
that is World Elephant Day. All you have
to do is experience elephants in nonexploitive
and sustainable environments
where they can thrive under care and
protection.
BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW
According to Dr Kahumbu, elephants
are exceptionally gifted animals
that enjoy a fairly long lifespan, coexist
in tightknit social units and exhibit a
level of compassion that humanity can
learn from. “Elephants live until about
75 years old,” says Dr Kahumbu. “They
have enormous brains and are extremely
intelligent. They know how to navigate
vast landscapes and how to stay safe.
They’re also compassionate and will
support each other through childbirth
and injuries, and they will stay and
mourn the dead returning to the skeletons
of their relatives. How they can
know the identity of the skeleton is a
mystery to us.”
Elephants are the world’s largest land
animals, with male African elephants
attaining a height of 3 m and weighing
4,000-7,500 kg. Asian elephants are
slightly smaller, reaching a height of 2.7
m and weighing 3,000-6,000 kg. There
are two types of elephants found in Africa:
the savannah elephant – found across
East and Southern Africa – and the forest
elephant, which is only found in the
Congo Basin. Forest elephants look
similar to savannah elephants but are
smaller, have straighter tusks and live in
smaller groups.
Like humans, elephants live in families
but, uniquely, the females lead these
families. Males leave their families at the
age of 14 to join bachelor groups, which
move away from the breeding herds and
into wooded areas where they feed and
grow. They return to the family territories
when they’re in their 30s and in
breeding condition. Of particular note is
the leadership model among elephants.
“Leadership in elephants is gentle and
yet assertive,” says Dr Kahumbu. “The
matriarch always keeps her family out
of harm’s way and will fight to protect
every individual in the family. We need
wise, compassionate leaders too.”
Elephants occupy every habitat
except marine environments and tops
of icy mountains, and they can feed on
everything from grass to a tree’s bark,
David Yarrow
Philip Lee Harvey